Tuesday Nov. 5, 7PM, at the SVA amphitheater, open to the public.
An update of a lecture I gave in 2010 discussing the work that artists are doing outside the traditional editorial framework. This is in acknowledgement of the changing world we all live in.
I didn’t feel I was doing a complete enough job as teacher (I have both sophomore and senior portfolio classes) unless I could represent, to the best of my ability, a picture of the world of illustration as it is, and what it is becoming.
This is not to say that I feel that print is going away. It is changing in its presence and role. Many of the projects seen in Illustration Next have found their way into books, various new publications. Also web-based entities are finding print to be an interesting iteration of work done online. The main thing that has changed is that artists are becoming much more content-providers and producers. Project ideas originate with us much more now. Of course the phone will ring with projects that we are right for. But these are living more and more, side by side with one’s own projects, born, raised and sent off into the world (and then sending home a golden coin) by artists.

More than ever the world of illustration is the stuff that dreams are made of. Here, below, are a few of the more than 50 artists who will be featured in our talk.

Today celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Saturday Night Massacre. This graphic treatment in tomorrow’s LA Times. Thanks to Susan Brenneman and Wes Bausmith for above and beyond the call help.

The firing of the special Watergate prosecutor Cox, by Nixon marks a moment in history when the nation changed by widespread immediate consensus that a politician had gone too far. It has implication for our times. We learned that he incredible cannot happen . . . until it does. Etc.

Nixon would not let go of tapes that are suspected of implicating him in the cover up.

Special Prosector Archibald Cox needed those tapes for his investigation.

Nixon, of course, says no, claiming executive privilege.

Judge Sirica, a tough guy, doesn’t buy that.

Nixon comes up with a plan to release the tapes where they would be reviewed . . . by him!

Next Nixon goes to Solicitor General Robert Bork. Bork says yes and fires Cox.

This becomes a huge story, reported in media in almost real time. That night young people gathered at the White House. The American people rose up and demanded action. Leaders in Congress held a meeting that weekend to for the first time seriously discuss impeachment.

The people (well informed and) united will (mostly) never be defeated.

PS: Nixon was forced to hire a replacement prosector, Leon Jaworski, who, it turned out, was just as tough as Cox would have been. Every single player in Watregate, that includes cabinet members as well as many senior and junior lieutenants, went to prison. Except, of course, for You Know Who. Who by the way goes down in history primary, not for any achievements in the White house, but for Watergate, impeachment, resignation and disgrace. Justice was ultimately done.

“Lou is a big gangly fellow who appears to be made out of Jello. His head is a planet. His gate is all wobbly. His tail is titanic and his kisses are slobbery. He looks like he’s made to search and destroy, but he’s really just a good little boy.”

FYI . . .

Steve Brodner feels he is a newcomer to illustration but that's because he has a really bad memory. Much of his career is worth remembering in any case. Most of it has been about a guy getting to absolutely live his dream; making pictures that make stabs at telling the truth in print about things he feels are important. He is still at it, now moving across platforms, believing, with some justification, that we are all content providers and can now see our ideas shape and get shaped by all manner of media. This site is dedicated to that. And above all, to the best of our imperfect faculties, to telling the truth.

Caricature is…

Caricature, which is a subcategory of illustration, is about finding the narrative elements within a portrait and making them clear as tools in making literal and figurative points. When done for publication, it is not merely about making big things bigger and small things smaller. It is storytelling. This involves knowledge about what is under the surface of a face and teasing it to the top. Caricature is not the destination. It is the journey. It's the bike you ride.